


12/19/90

by HopelessPoemantic



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Short & Sweet, post s4e13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopelessPoemantic/pseuds/HopelessPoemantic
Summary: After almost four years of long looks and stolen glances, Annie is still waiting for Jeff to finally be honest with her. As he prepares to leave Greendale for the last time, Annie starts to think that she might be waiting on something that will never happen.Takes place directly after the season 4 finale.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	12/19/90

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! This is a tiny little fic inspired by a small and cute idea that I just really really wanted to write about, so I stayed up super late last night and just went for it :) hope you like it!

Annie knew how unlikely it was that she was just imagining it. Granted, she hadn’t always known that. In fact, most of the time she’d been stuck second guessing her every desire and telling herself that she was only pretending wishes were realities. 

First, she’d see something in his eyes that she would swear to God was more than just happiness. The power of those looks could energize her steps for an entire day. But then, as soon as it had come, the power would vanish. The next day, he’d be cold and distant, and when he spoke to her it felt like he was talking to someone else. She’d try to brush it off, but then become convinced that that “someone else” was really who she was to him, and that what she thought she’d seen when they looked at each other was just a wish. 

And then again with the looks. And she’d be right back to dreaming. Or maybe this time they’d share a hug that a bit longer than was normal but was still just as comfortable. Maybe he’d invite her, and only her, to spend time together on what was definitely not a date.

Whatever it was, Annie was tired of it. But she couldn’t be imagining it. Just seconds ago, when Jeff delivered the closing line of his last Winger speech, there it was again. 

“My love for you is…” his face had instantly become somber, filled with something much more intense and heavy than the simple gratitude he’d been expressing thus far. And he’d look her straight in the eye. 

“Immeasurable,” as that last word hung in the air, he’d seemingly forgotten where he was for a moment. For a split-second he just stood there, eyes locked with hers, almost expressionless, like he was in the middle of a daydream. 

And then he snapped out of it and turned to the rest of them with a little smile, “Even when you split it seven ways.”

Annie stopped paying attention after that. All she could think about was how he’d said that word. “Immeasurable.” It was so obvious. That word was for her. 

Which is why she decided just moments later to stop it all. Because if Jeff let the day go by without finally telling her, then she _was_ imagining it. At the very end of the line, with Jeff about to head back into the world and leave Annie behind, if he still does nothing? Then he can’t love her. If she could be so certain about what was in his eyes when he finished his speech, but it just meant nothing in the end? Then that had to mean it _was_ nothing.

As the group filed out of the study room one last time, Annie waited back, wanting to give him one more chance to say something to her. When he looked over his shoulder at her as he walked out but said nothing, she wasn’t surprised. That was it for her then. All she had to do was get through one last goodbye dinner at the pizza place nearby, and then she could start letting him go for good.

“Hey, Annie, we have to go change into our goodbye outfits before dinner, so you should just get a ride with Jeff,” Troy appeared next to her as she walked out of the room.

“I thought these were your goodbye outfits?”

“These are our wedding outfits. The aesthetic we’re aiming for on this goodbye is a lot more casual. People get exhausted if there’s too much consecutive drama,” Abed said to her as he and Troy started to walk towards the car.

“Oh… well I’ll just go with Shirley then, it’s fine. I don’t need to inconvenience Jeff.”

Jeff, who apparently was listening, turned around, “Shirley is bringing her kids, remember? No room. But it’s fine, I’d love to take you.”

Just hearing the word “love” from Jeff’s lips while he was looking at her actually froze her brain for a second, but she quickly recovered.

“Oh… okay. Yeah that works then,” having run out of excuses, she was forced to oblige. 

The fifteen minute drive began with a full minute of silence. Annie kept her gaze straight ahead, but she could see Jeff occasionally pretending to check his side mirror as he looked at her face. Both overcome by awkwardness, they spoke simultaneously.

Annie: “Guess we won’t really see each-”

Jeff: “You know, I’ll really miss-”

Jeff laughed slightly, “You first, sorry.”

Annie was still too emotionally exhausted to laugh, but at least the tension was released, “I was just saying that I guess we probably won’t see each other much now.”

“Oh. Well… yeah I guess not.”

“What were you saying?”

“Oh just that I don’t know why I keep agreeing to eat pizza with you guys.”

Annie nodded, but then looked back at him, “I heard what you started to say.”

Jeff glanced over at her before returning his eyes to the road, “And what might that be?”

“You were gonna say that you’ll miss me, right?”

Jeff swallowed and nodded, “I will.”

Annie shifted in her seat, “Well… at least you won’t have to for long. Pretty soon we’ll just be old friends. You’ll be a lawyer; I’ll be a hospital administrator. We’ll have different lives.”

Jeff frowned, “Can’t we both just miss each other?”

“Why would we want to if we don’t have to?”

Jeff continued frowning as his brow furrowed, “I don’t know… it’s like a way we can stay more than old friends. I don’t miss my old friends. If we both keep missing each other then that means it’s more likely we’ll see each other again, right?”

Now it was Annie’s turn to frown, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

Annie made the mistake of looking to see Jeff’s reaction, and she couldn’t help but wince at the pain in his face. He didn’t say anything, just nodded a bit. Just before it looked like he might respond, his phone buzzed from in between them. Annie glanced at who sent the text.

“It’s from Shirley,” she said.

“Can you respond for me? I’d rather not do it while I drive.”

Annie picked up the phone to type a message in response to Shirley’s request for an ETA, but found it locked.

“It’s locked.”

“Oh yeah, sorry. Password is one twenty-one nine ninety.”

Annie froze as soon as she typed it in. She looked quickly at Jeff and then back to his phone. It didn’t seem like he even noticed what he’d told her. If not for the statistical improbability of it, she would’ve thought it was a complete accident with no meaning at all. But that was impossible. 

12/19/90. Annie’s birthday. 

She looked back at Jeff again, who still seemed to have no idea what he’d just given away. Not wanting anything to interrupt the feeling that was stirring in her heart, she just sat there looking at the phone. She locked it again, and typed in the same number just to be sure. And there it was again. She couldn’t help the small smile that somehow had found its way onto her face in the middle of everything else that was going on. 

“What did she want?”

Annie remembered where she was only when Jeff spoke to her again. She looked at him, having no idea what it was he’d just said.

“Sorry… what?”

“What did Shirley want?”

“Oh… just ETA.”

“Okay.”

They sat in silence for another minute. Annie stole a glance at Jeff. So… so she wasn’t just making it all up in her head? There were numbers to prove it. 

12/19/90. 

Maybe the future didn’t have to be so empty after all. Maybe there _was_ a good reason to hold onto it. 

“Jeff?”

“Mmhm?”

“Missing each other sounds good to me. Just don’t… don’t let it just go on forever, okay?”

Jeff looked back at her, smiling with her now, “You have a deal.” He offered her a handshake with a playful grin, “That’s the Winger guarantee.”

Annie gave him a good-natured eye-roll as she accepted his handshake, but went right back to smiling afterward. She closed and opened his phone one more time to type in the numbers. She was going to miss him. But she knew he was going to miss her too. And she knew she wasn’t imagining _that_. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :) If you are looking for something a bit longer (this was super short I know I know I’m sorry) I have two other fics that I put much more work into than this one if you haven’t read them! Alright, gotta fly. I’ll be back with more soon!


End file.
